Bangladesh has blocked YouTube after the video-sharing website failed to take down an anti-Islam film that has sparked furious protests across the Muslim world, government officials said yesterday. The country’s telecommunications regulator blocked the website “to prevent violence and social disorder over the derogatory video”, its acting chairman Giashuddin Ahmed told AFP. “On Sunday we wrote to (site owner) Google to remove the video clip from YouTube. We told them that it could incite violence, but they have not done so,” he said. “Yesterday we told our officials to block YouTube. The site has been blocked since Monday night,” he added. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday strongly condemned the making of the anti-Islamic film by a US producer and urged the US government to immediately stop sale and projection of the controversial film. “No Muslim can tolerate such defamation of Prophet (PBUH),” Hasina said also asking the US authorities to expose to exemplary punitive actions against the film-maker for demeaning Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.Google, which has barred access to the video in Egypt, India, Indonesia, Libya and Malaysia, was not immediately available for comment. The film entitled “Innocence of Muslims”, believed to have been produced by a small group of extremist Christians, has sparked a week of furious protests outside US embassies and other American symbols in several countries. Islamic groups and organisations staged street protests in the Bangladesh capital demanding punishment of the filmmaker and chanting anti-US slogans prompting authorities to enforce an intensified security vigil around the US embassy and other US establishments in Dhaka. Mohamad Sirajum Monir, a businessman from Uttara, said he saw the film on YouTube several times from 5:30pm until the BTRC official told the media about the block. Asked about the matter, the BTRC official said ‘some technical reasons’ was delaying them from completely blocking the site. At least 19 people have died in protests against the film including the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans who were killed in Benghazi when the US consulate came under attack. AFP